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Is your house cold, drafty, expensive to heat?
by
Woodbridge Environmental Tiptophouse.com
(IC: professional)
This is us in the process of doing another home. Seeing were in the heating mode, I thought this may shed some light on why it happens. This house is a split level with several overhangs that extend the walls beyond the foundation. After doing a energy audit and interviewing the owner who complained of cold feet in the rooms where these overhangs were located. We opened up them and found that the builder on this 45 year old home used foil backed insulation that was 3" thick. The insulation was filled with mouse droppings, saturated damp with moisture due to attempts by the owner running humidifiers in the house with no results and insulation filled with dust collection from air leaks coming from the outside of the home.
We removed all of the soffits and removed all the damaged insulation. When looking up into the floor cavities we could see daylight out the other side of the house over 20 feet away. Light fixtures that were put into the ceiling leaked tremendous amounts of air when we did our air testing. All of this air was the result of leakage from the overhangs.
Once cleaned out we sprayed about 2.5 inches of closed cell insulation blocking the air flow from entering into the wall cavity. Followed by Eco Batt insulation that has a R rating of 30. The combined R value is R-48 for the overhangs.
Using foam boards to act as a dam to hold the spray foam up between each bay we successfully stopped the air flow through all of the floor joists on two levels of the home. Tests reveal that we stopped over 80% of the air leaks in this home. This will result in an estimated savings of over $900 per year in heat bills while improving comfort and safety.
Air sealing a home has many benefits. Air flowing through walls entering from the outside and leaving out through the attic draws dust, humidity, mold and air pollution into the home making it in some instances worse then the air outside to breath.
AS this occurs your heating and cooling system needs to overcome the new so called "fresh" air that enters as a result. This causes the need to have larger HVAC equipment to handle not only the loads of the house, but to provide enough capacity to handle what is leaking into the house. Add to that in summer you are allowing more moisture to enter and in winter your bringing in dry air that needs to have moisture added to it.
If you simply air seal that will stop all the leakage and lower your costs of operation.
You do not need to use the foam methods that we use, a simple caulking gun with a good quality sealant will do the trick. The more you seal the more you will save.
We removed all of the soffits and removed all the damaged insulation. When looking up into the floor cavities we could see daylight out the other side of the house over 20 feet away. Light fixtures that were put into the ceiling leaked tremendous amounts of air when we did our air testing. All of this air was the result of leakage from the overhangs.
Once cleaned out we sprayed about 2.5 inches of closed cell insulation blocking the air flow from entering into the wall cavity. Followed by Eco Batt insulation that has a R rating of 30. The combined R value is R-48 for the overhangs.
Using foam boards to act as a dam to hold the spray foam up between each bay we successfully stopped the air flow through all of the floor joists on two levels of the home. Tests reveal that we stopped over 80% of the air leaks in this home. This will result in an estimated savings of over $900 per year in heat bills while improving comfort and safety.
Air sealing a home has many benefits. Air flowing through walls entering from the outside and leaving out through the attic draws dust, humidity, mold and air pollution into the home making it in some instances worse then the air outside to breath.
AS this occurs your heating and cooling system needs to overcome the new so called "fresh" air that enters as a result. This causes the need to have larger HVAC equipment to handle not only the loads of the house, but to provide enough capacity to handle what is leaking into the house. Add to that in summer you are allowing more moisture to enter and in winter your bringing in dry air that needs to have moisture added to it.
If you simply air seal that will stop all the leakage and lower your costs of operation.
You do not need to use the foam methods that we use, a simple caulking gun with a good quality sealant will do the trick. The more you seal the more you will save.
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Published January 15th, 2013 1:03 PM
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Charlotte Belange on Dec 08, 2013If you live in a rental and can't do or get your land lord to do it check with your local Community Action Council they have Energy Assistance Program they have programs for the owner that is really great. I live in Washington state we have a great CAC program. Char B YELM,WA
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